Written by Charmaine Chitate for CARE/ USAID Takunda - Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA)

Every week, Desmond Jeke (20) meets with his peers for a friendly match at the nearest soccer grounds in Ward 3, Zaka district. The regular fixtures give Desmond and his peers time to unwind and set aside concerns about their future. Like Desmond, some of them have completed senior school and are unable to proceed to tertiary school due to financial constraints.

Desmond is just one of two young men who attended the broader village sensitisation meeting for the village development committee (VIDCO) 3. Cluster 3 consists of three villages, Mahora/Tizirai 1, Chisandako, and Nhando. Noticing that his age group was underrepresented at the meeting, Desmond invited some of his peers to attend the following session. According to Desmond, the low attendance level was owing to the consistent exclusion of young people in the early stages of development programmes, “I’ve never seen a meeting where we are called in as youth to discuss our aspirations.”

He goes on to share some of the challenges young people face in attending meetings, “It is difficult to get a young person to commit to attending as my peers can outrightly refuse to be associated with a meeting or are easily influenced against attending a meeting.”

A perceptive young man, Desmond’s solution is simple, “I think, if you want the youth to meet and participate, you have to engage our parents, not the headman. If you arrange a meeting with our parents, explain and seek consent from them for us to attend the meeting, it puts them in a better position to urge us to attend the meeting and plan for our future.”

A USAID-funded activity, Takunda is a multifaceted approach towards the co-creation of youth-oriented opportunities with its partners. Aiming to empower over 3000 young people with vocational skills training, the Takunda community visioning process will inform the selection of projects as identified by communities and assess their feasibility based on information shared regarding past projects.

The underrepresentation of young people during the community visioning process has echoed throughout Manicaland and Masvingo Provinces. Working towards a remedy, Takunda staff began to implement an innovative approach towards youth engagement, “We noticed that youth participation varies from one Ward to another. What we’ve learned since we started the CV process is to rope in the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation- especially the Ward based coordinators to mobilize the youth.”  Martin Chauke, Business Development Officer at USAID Takunda. Martin shares his motivation, “As I will be working mainly with the youth, what I’ve achieved in life I want to impart that knowledge. My vision is for them to have access to the exposure and the opportunities that I did so that they are empowered. I also see myself impacting in the communities I also come from.”